Indoor Layout

The indoor layout comes complete with trestles, bridges, tunnels, portals, trees, mountains and water features. A small sampling is shown here.

Hand painted murals accentuate the layout. There is 85 linear feet of hand painted wall murals in the basement. The artist is Gordie Gorrie of Gorrie Art.

The inside buildings are built from kits but have been hand painted and aged to enhance the realism aspect. The scenery will evolve over the coming years as attention to detail will prioritize during the winter seasons. A roundhouse is situated at the base of a waterfall feature and instead of the traditional turntable three double “Y” switches determine the track of choice into the building.

Shay at Canyon Mural

The indoor track plan has 40 operating track switches to control train movements plus four power transformers. The track is block wired to disable engines on sidings. Green/yellow indicator lights display which transformer or operator has control of any track section on the layout. I also run radio controlled trains by turning the track power on fully and controlling the engine speed and direction by the radio control. This then allows the engines to make their sound effects and generate smoke while stopped at the station plus have all the lights in the passenger cars working.

I find some enjoyment in taking the road less travelled and working out the problems or difficulties that I encounter along the way. Once I then overcome these obstacles a sense of accomplishment prevails. If I find the time I will surely have to write an operations training manual for the next generation of engineers.

One of four control stations - the layout design is shown here. The switch control boxes shown here are wired to handle the fifteen turnouts in this section. Five more orange switching control boxes are situated at other strategic locations. the switching control boxes handle the double �Y� turnouts approaching the roundhouse buildings. A separate transformer provides the power for train movements into the maintenance depot.

The coaling tower stands next to the gravel supply depot at this busy maintenance yard at the intersecting point of the two separate main lines. A water fill stop is also located beside a CPR portable station depot on the main line not visible here. Trains must stop at the water tower while required switching is preformed to transverse between rail lines.

To view the exhibit in its entirety - please put a small group together and call for an appointed time, donations are accepted to assist with layout developments..